The L-word meets the V-word
The Bachelor is supposed to be all about love, but this season, a lot of the focus is on star Colton Underwood’s virginity
It was the question that everyone was thinking about but wouldn’t dare to pose on last week’s conference call with new Bachelor Colton Underwood.
And then someone went there: “Did you lose your virginity?” a reporter asked.
“I knew that was gonna be asked at some point in this,” the 26-year-old former NFL player said good-naturedly.
But the newest star of the long-running reality TV franchise — which returns to ABC and Citytv Monday at 8 p.m. — wasn’t about to kiss, or anything else, and tell.
To answer “would be spoiling the rest of the season,” he explained.
So here we are: At a time when the dust is still swirling from the #MeToo revolution, it’s considered fair game to ask a male reality TV star if he experienced sexual intercourse for the first time while making a dating show.
On The Bachelor, now starting its 23rd season, one man is introduced to up to 30 women and dates them week by week, either singly or in groups, until ending up with two finalists, one of whom he’ll presumably propose to.
Underwood said he knew his virginity was going to be a “topic of conversation throughout” this season (though he bristled at my use of the word “issue” rather than topic), but he gamely tried to steer the conversation out of the bedroom.
“The thing that at times I get frustrated with, it’s just a small part of who I am,” he said as questions involving the V-word kept on coming.
“Instead of it being Colton Underwood, Bachelor, it’s the virgin Colton Underwood … I’m a human being; that just happens to be a small part of my life and something that makes me into who I am.”
Unfortunately for Underwood, it’s also a big part of this Bachelor season.
I’d wager that one of the main reasons Underwood was chosen as Bachelor, to the displeasure of a vocal cohort of fans, was his virgin status. Series creator Mike Fleiss seemed to acknowledge as much in an interview with Entertainment Weekly when he said the prospect of Underwood losing his virginity on the series “creates added stakes for this season.”
There’s a telling vignette in EW’s behind-the-scenes diary of the first night of shooting in which Fleiss and other producers keep pushing host Chris Harrison to ask Underwood if his virginity is “at risk.”
The franchise has long had a salacious, hookups-and-hot-tubs vibe, especially after the introduction of spinoff Bachelor in Paradise. (That show was the subject of a scandal a couple of seasons ago when a sexual encounter involving a woman who was spaced out on alcohol and medication got out of hand, leading to the shutdown of production.)
And now producers have a “Will he or won’t he?” story line to exploit all season long. (It’s front and centre in the season trailer, although fans seem more interested in the scene of an angry Underwood pushing someone away, walking off and jumping a fence.)
The question for Warner Bros. and ABC is more “Will they or won’t they?” — as in, will viewers be tantalized enough by the prospect of Underwood losing it to boost the ratings?
TV by the Numbers says viewership of the most recent season (starring a Bachelor even more unpopular than Underwood, Arie Luyendyk Jr.) was down 30 per cent year over year among 18- to 49-year-olds, although the finale hit a season high.
I have read opinion pieces that suggest The Bachelor has to shake things up or die, but I would argue its rigid formula and all the ridiculousness that entails — the old “I’m in love with two women” conceit that sets up nearly every finale, for example — is one of the main attractions for hardcore fans and their lovehate relationship with the show. In fact, past efforts to be more progressive have had mixed results, as when the franchise cast its first Black Bachelorette (the eminently deserving Rachel Lindsay) and lost viewers.
Nonetheless, Underwood is suggesting this will be a season like no other.
“My experience was … unique, it’s different, and it hasn’t been done before and it hasn’t happened yet on The Bachelor.”
At another point he said that while the series is typically supposed to end in a proposal, “I wanted to make sure I did things my way … everybody goes through this process differently.”
Reporters pumped for details: Was he in a relationship? Was he in love?
“I’m exactly where I need to be in my life right now,” was all that he would say. “I’m really excited to share this whole entire thing with you guys because I feel like the women on this season were unbelievable and the places we got to travel were absolutely insane,” he added.
“You guys are in for a really good one.”